This chapter studies Ōshima Nagisa’s In the Realm of the Senses, as well as its censorship trial. The book is divided into three discrete sections: first, twenty-four 7-by-10-inch color still ...
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This chapter studies Ōshima Nagisa’s In the Realm of the Senses, as well as its censorship trial. The book is divided into three discrete sections: first, twenty-four 7-by-10-inch color still photographs; second, the original screenplay that was distributed to the actors and staff prior to making the film; and third, several essays of criticism by Ōshima. In the tersely worded indictment, twelve of these photos and nine passages of the screenplay were identified as obscene. Japanese-film scholar Aaron Gerow noted in an article on the Realm trial, that the “obscenity[of the book]comes not from the text itself, but rather from the reception of that text.”Less

A Picture’s Worth a Thousand Words : In the Realm of the Senses (1976–1982)

Kirsten Cather

Published in print: 2012-07-31

This chapter studies Ōshima Nagisa’s In the Realm of the Senses, as well as its censorship trial. The book is divided into three discrete sections: first, twenty-four 7-by-10-inch color still photographs; second, the original screenplay that was distributed to the actors and staff prior to making the film; and third, several essays of criticism by Ōshima. In the tersely worded indictment, twelve of these photos and nine passages of the screenplay were identified as obscene. Japanese-film scholar Aaron Gerow noted in an article on the Realm trial, that the “obscenity[of the book]comes not from the text itself, but rather from the reception of that text.”

In 2002 a manga (comic book) was for the first time successfully charged with the crime of obscenity in the Japanese courts. This book traces how this case represents the most recent in a long line ...
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In 2002 a manga (comic book) was for the first time successfully charged with the crime of obscenity in the Japanese courts. This book traces how this case represents the most recent in a long line of sensational landmark obscenity trials that have dotted the history of postwar Japan. The objects of these trials range from a highbrow literary translation of Lady Chatterley’s Lover and modern adaptations and reprintings of Edo-period pornographic literary “classics” by authors such as Nagai Kafū to soft core and hard core pornographic films, including a collection of still photographs and the script from Ōshima Nagisa’s In the Realm of the Senses, as well as adult manga. At stake in each case was the establishment of a new hierarchy for law and culture, determining, in other words, to what extent the constitutional guarantee of free expression would extend to art, artist, and audience. The book draws on diverse sources, including trial transcripts and verdicts, literary and film theory, legal scholarship, and surrounding debates in artistic journals and the press. It demonstrates how legal arguments are enmeshed in a broader web of cultural forces. The book offers an original, interdisciplinary analysis that shows how art and law nurtured one another even as they clashed and demonstrates the dynamic relationship between culture and law, society and politics in postwar Japan.Less

The Art of Censorship in Postwar Japan

Kirsten Cather

Published in print: 2012-07-31

In 2002 a manga (comic book) was for the first time successfully charged with the crime of obscenity in the Japanese courts. This book traces how this case represents the most recent in a long line of sensational landmark obscenity trials that have dotted the history of postwar Japan. The objects of these trials range from a highbrow literary translation of Lady Chatterley’s Lover and modern adaptations and reprintings of Edo-period pornographic literary “classics” by authors such as Nagai Kafū to soft core and hard core pornographic films, including a collection of still photographs and the script from Ōshima Nagisa’s In the Realm of the Senses, as well as adult manga. At stake in each case was the establishment of a new hierarchy for law and culture, determining, in other words, to what extent the constitutional guarantee of free expression would extend to art, artist, and audience. The book draws on diverse sources, including trial transcripts and verdicts, literary and film theory, legal scholarship, and surrounding debates in artistic journals and the press. It demonstrates how legal arguments are enmeshed in a broader web of cultural forces. The book offers an original, interdisciplinary analysis that shows how art and law nurtured one another even as they clashed and demonstrates the dynamic relationship between culture and law, society and politics in postwar Japan.